Remote-Access Sabbath School Unites Distant Members

In a land where roads are nearly nonexistent and air travel is the rule, radio and telephone close the gap. Richard Dennis and Paul Kildal lead out in the Alaska Conference’s distant-delivery Sabbath School every Saturday morning at 9:30 a.m. This Sabbath School makes the adult lesson available to virtually every person in Alaska, but it wasn’t always so.

Up until the late 1970s, most Alaskan bush villages did not have telephones and the only means of communication was marine radio. Dennis recalls a call coming in one day from a marine operator (ship-to-shore) from a school in the Aleutians. The interview followed with a job offer, and Dennis started his 25-year career as a teacher in remote villages in Alaska.From his experience, he can tell you living in the Alaskan bush can be pretty lonely because it usually means not having access to a church family or other church members.

Alaska Remote Sabbath School class has changed that, making possible this formerly impossible dream. From Barrow on Alaska’s North Slope and the far reaches of the Aleutians to the distant fjords of the southeast and the rugged interior, virtually all Alaskans have access to an online Sabbath School class via the telephone.

If you know someone without access to Sabbath School, perhaps even someone living remotely in any area of the United States, invite them to join this unique Sabbath School class. Sabbath mornings at 9:30 a.m. (AKST), call 800-920-7487, access code 53383143#.

Featured in: February 2016

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